What Came Before
by My Echoing Silence
Summary: Prequel to 'Essence of His Soul'. Basically a summary of events in Kuronue's life before and after meeting Youko Kurama, up until his death. Told mostly from Kuronue's POV. Very slight crossover


**_Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognized as belonging to someone else._**

This is a prequel to '_Essence Of His Soul'_, so be sure to read that too.

There is a **lemon** in here, but it will have warnings before and after it. Nudity warning too.

Enjoy ;3

* * *

Kuronue trusted Youko Kurama with his life. But he necessarily didn't trust the silver fox not to molest him whilst he was sleeping.

Or injured for that matter.

Funny that.

But still, he had to admit that the fox _was_ rather attractive and, if the sidelong glances were any indication, Youko rather thought Kuronue would be a fine piece of arse too.

Not that Kuronue ever had any intention of giving in to such temptations. He simply did not _do_ sluts; and a slut was pretty much what Youko was. Fact of life: Deal with it.

After every heist, without fail, Youko would proposition the bat demon. After every heist, without fail, Kuronue would turn down the fox demon. Youko would then leave to indulge in the embrace of some other, more indulging demon, only to come back hours later reeking of sex.

The cycle had been going on so long that it had become habit.

It irritated the shit out of the bat demon.

Bat demons, a close relation to succuba and incubi, weren't exactly the demon world's icon species for Celebrate Goody-Goodies. Fact was that most bat demons had _some_ minor abilities that revolved around sex, but still, given the ratio and circumstances, bat demons had nothing on the kitsune.

Kuronue honestly didn't think anything would change anytime soon.

Insert a chibi-Irony Imp kicking chibi-Kuronue in the pants.

One day after a particularly stressful heist, which forced the duo to take haven in a deep den in the middle of nowhere, Youko had snapped and demanded why Kuronue wouldn't have sex with him when it would help them both relieve the tension of a night of thieving.

Kuronue, already slightly inebriated from the bottle of sake he had skulled the moment he had returned, had snapped that he 'didn't fuck sluts' because he 'didn't know where they'd been and what kind of social diseases they'd picked up'. He had regretted the words as soon as they'd left his mouth before he even saw the look on Youko's face, like he'd been slapped by the one person he had thought would never hurt him, right before the red-eyed rage had taken over.

Before Kuronue had been able to drag himself together, he had found himself jerked off his feet and slammed down, his wrists and ankles bound to the ground on either side of Youko's sleeping pallet by the thick vines some carnivorous jungle plant.

When his head stopped spinning, the first things the bat chimera had seen were Youko's blood-red eyes, confirming his fear that the stress, emotional pain and physical lust had cause his best friend and partner to snap and give in to his primal side. That head of silver hair had dipped and hovered right beside his long, sensitive ear.

"So I'm a slut, am I? I'll given you a slut and make you enjoy it." The fox had hissed.

Kuronue had put up a half-hearted struggle, thrashing and beating his wings, but had become weak under the skilled administrations of the knowledgeable fox. The bat had finally resorted to simply lying on the pallet and watching the fox play his body like a fiddle.

It was when the demonic fox had pulled back on his haunches to gloat over his handiwork that the red eyes glanced up and locked eyes with Kuronue's violet orbs. Youko had flinched, the gold returning with a vengeance.

Once again in full control of his facilities, Youko had recoiled from the tired, saddened regard peeping out from behind the cloud of lust and had immediately released his partner, apologising profusely, almost tearfully.

Kuronue had looked away, gathered his clothes and gone into his own section of the den without a word. When he turned the corner, an agonising, heartbroken not-whine, not-wail had followed him.

Youko was tentative for weeks afterwards, but had eventually returned to his original arrogant personality. Neither ever mentioned it in the years that followed, but Youko stopped propositioning the bat after a heist and seldom went out to indulge himself.

But still a wariness lingered between the two. No more was Kuronue the sardonic, smirking jester when the two were alone.

The wariness was understandable from Kuronue's side, but Youko's wariness stemmed from the knowledge that Kuronue had always been stronger when it came to brute force.

Kuronue could have freed himself from the vines and beaten down the fox down with little hassle, so why hadn't he?

**(space)**

Nearly half a century later, Kuronue sat beside the still little pool in a shadowed glen, early-morning light filtering through the swaying leaves to glint off the ruby and gold Seeing pendant swinging gently in the still air.

Only Kuronue and his older sister knew it, but the bat chimera had a slight gift for Sight. He had foreseen his meeting and subsequent partnership with Youko, he had foreseen, too late, the slaughter of nearly his entire clan, he had foreseen a conflict between himself and Youko that night years ago, and now…

He saw two human boys wrapped in an embrace, both with startling green eyes, though one had long black hair high in a ponytail whilst the other had long vermillion red hair hanging loose down his back. A third boy, a hiyoukai with spiked-up black hair and blood-gem bright eyes joined them, a white bandana wrapped securely around his forehead.

Kuronue had always understood his visions immediately, seldom as they were, whilst others stronger in the gift were seldom able to piece them together before the event took place. This particular vision would not take place for quite some time, possibly centuries, though no less than a century from that moment.

The bat moved to pull out of his trance when a second vision hit him. It was short and to the point; in the next few days, he would begin a sexual relationship with Youko that would, quite possibly, span lifetimes.

The Seeing pendant was replaced around his throat and he left the glade to go see what his partner was doing, still mulling over the vision.

So caught up in thought was he that Kuronue subconsciously dismissed the sounds of slightly heavy footfalls behind him until there was the sound of shifting air that sent him instinctively ducking and twisting so he could see his opponent.

It was a tall, heavy-shouldered beast-type, rogue from the look and stench of it, with fangs, claws and tusks; only about lower C-class, but very strong physically and rather fast. Kuronue was faster, but the beast was physically stronger.

Kuronue mentally berated himself for a few moments as he ducked under another swing of the club and reached for his sickles, only to be hit in the side from behind by a second, slightly smaller beast. He heard some of his ribs crack and a scream passed his lips without his knowledge, alerting a certain silver fox that something was happening to his partner.

The bat chimera rolled just in time to avoid the club being brought down where his chest had just been, ignoring the painful twinges in his wings from his body-weight pressing on them uncomfortably. Scrambling to his feet, Kuronue put his back to a tree so they couldn't get behind him again.

A third, older beast joined the duo and they moved in on the heavily breathing youkai with intent to kill and devour.

Knowing either they died or he did, Kuronue grabbed his remaining sickle with his dominant hand and cradled his fractured ribs with the other, already tasting the coppery tang of blood in the back of his throat from punctured lung.

The first beast feinted in from the right, causing the bat to shift slightly before moving to go back to his original position; it was whilst Kuronue was distracted that the smaller, faster beast surged forward from the left, its long dirty claws tearing into the flesh below the bat's rib cage and aiming up for the demon's nucleus.

Just before the nucleus was reached, a thorny whip lashed out and severed the arm clear from the body of the beast, causing it to fall out of the wound and to the ground relatively harmlessly. Moments later the rest of the beast was falling to the ground in pieces. Large, thorny vines snaked out and wrapped around the first beast, crushing it, whilst a large flesh-eating plant spontaneously grew from beneath the feet of the older one.

Relieved that he was going to live, Kuronue collapsed against the tree, clutching his sides and choking up blood from his torn lungs.

Just as his eyes began turning to blur into darkness, he saw Youko kneeling in front of him, the expression on his face one of terror and shock.

**(space)**

Kuronue woke several times, though so incoherent that he was barely aware of doing so. Each time, Youko was there, bending over him with brows drawn together in worry and offering either water or a thin broth.

Sometimes he was aware of laughing hysterically, others sobbing uncontrollably, sometimes even babbling nonsense or of times long past. He remembered things in his feverish dreams; things he would rather remain locked behind the big crimson door at the back of his mind.

He vaguely recalled someone telling him that a red door means peace. As soon as he tried to remember who it was, he remembered someone he had tried to forget; his very first love and lover, Madara.

He remembered sitting beneath a tree on a hill on a bright day with a fair wind. They were exactly the same age; born on the same day, though Madara had been a few hours older. Kuronue had had short hair back then, barely past his chin at the front and short at the back, while Madara's hair had fallen soft and silky to his thighs from a high ponytail, his face framed by long bangs and his large cat-shaped black eyes sparkling like obsidian in the sun. Until Kuronue had met Youko, he had thought Madara's beauty unbeatable. He had grown his hair and styled it so in remembrance.

Madara had had the most beautiful smile, and he had words of wisdom for every occasion, be it playful or serious.

'…_Some ningens believe that a red door means peace…'_

'..._If people don't listen to you, try shouting. If they still don't listen, open fire…'_

'…_Never knock on Death's door. Ring the doorbell and run, he hates that…'_

'…_Never go to bed mad. Stay awake all night and plot horrible revenge…'_

'…_If at first you don't succeed, cheat. Repeat until caught, then lie…__'_

'…_Why should I kill you? By all rights, natural selection should do that on its own…'_

He'd left Madara sitting on the hill that autumn day and gone to collect various fruits and berries for winter with his sister. When he came back Madara and everyone else in the village was dead; killed by a band of raiders. Thirteen people of a tribe nearly five hundred strong remained.

Kuronue and Madara had been nineteen.

He vaguely recalled how his sister had laid his head in her lap and sung a song about castles in the sky.

Kurai-onee-san had been a powerful warrior and had become the head of the remaining bat chimera clan at fifty years.

Kurai was nothing like their mother Kiko had been, gentle and sweet, but rather like their father Kage, scornful and mocking, sometimes vulgar, but larger than life and driven by a powerful will. Kuronue couldn't recall her ever being gentle and sympathetic to anyone but him.

She had never looked so beautiful to him as she did when she stood silhouette against the smoke and fire lit sky, the wind blowing out her long wavy black hair around her large black wings, soot smudged face and glowing flame-coloured eyes mournful.

When he was roughly three hundred, the bat demon left for the Ningenkai and spent some time with a rather powerful inuyoukai by the name of Taisho. The two travelled together for quite some time before Kuronue finally found out that Taisho was actually the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands. The black haired youkai had been rather miffed when the stoic and even tempered dog demon collapsed in hysterical laughter and remained choking on his mirth on the ground for several minutes.

Of course, that was nothing compared to the mortification he felt when he realized he'd been calling one of the strongest Taiyoukai in the last two thousand years 'Fluffy-chan', for his big fluffy tail.

Things were never quite the same after that, though. There was always the uncomfortable distance that came with class distinctions, but Kuronue remained Taisho's closest friend, confidant and travelling companion, even when Taisho mated that skanky bitch Akira. Kuronue had privately celebrated when she died in childbirth.

He'd been rather fond of little Sesshoumaru, though, and was the puppy's main nursemaid and keeper whilst Taisho took care of paperwork when they stopped in during their travels around the Western Lands.

But all things must come to an end. The real friendship-breaking arguments between the two started when Taisho started courting a human girl. He had nothing against her as a person; she was kind, sweet, gentle, beautiful and loved him to boot. His only real beef with her was that she was human and therefore mortal. She would grow old and die in a matter of decades. He didn't want to see Taisho hurt like that.

That was not how Taisho took it and told the bat that he could accept it or leave.

Kuronue had stormed off in a rage, saying he wouldn't return until the human was gone. Taisho had stood firm for a whole two hours before breaking and going after his friend, but Kuronue was long gone. He sent demons out looking for him, but Kuronue had remained stubborn and hadn't seen Taisho again until the day the demon lord died. He had landed in front of the giant dying white dog, crying profusely, and apologised for being a stubborn prat and not coming back sooner. Taisho had forgiven him without hesitation and told the bat just how much he had missed his best friend.

At Taisho's last request before he died, Kuronue took two of the giant dog's fangs, bound the area in a giant Shadow Pet and took the fangs to an old demonic swordsmith who shaped the fangs into two swords of great power. Kuronue had hidden the two swords, returned to the Western Castle and informed Sesshoumaru of his sire's demise and subsequent final wishes. When no one was looking, he had hidden the black pearl that acted as a portal to the Shadow Pet in the eye of Taisho's hanyou progeny.

He had left and returned to the Makai despite the nearly adult Sesshoumaru's pleas to stay and help him rule.

Then he had met Youko and formed a relationship which lasted longer than any relationships in Kuronue's long life.

**(space)**

It was days later that Kuronue woke.

As was his usual morning ritual, he took stock of his bearings.

A head? Check. Two arms? Check. Two legs? Check. A pair of wings? Check. Subconsciously performing various bodily functions? Check. Youki levels at 92 percent. Existential Dread at 23 percent. Randomized Guilt at 32 percent. Sexual Repression at 78 percent. Perpetual Paranoia at 12 percent. Hunger: Famished. Thirst: Dehydrated. Bladder: Very Full.

Where was he? On his pallet in the den.

Where was Youko? Youko was…

…Why was his head on Youko's lap? And where was his vest?

Rather groggy, Kuronue sat up and was nearly toppled back over from the pain in his lower chest and upper abdomen.

Long term memory…active.

Oh…

Ow…

…Youko was never going to let him live this one down.

Intent on not disturbing the sleeping fox, Kuronue slunk off to the bathroom to empty his bladder and have a long soak in the hot springs in a natural cave connected to the den.

After relieving himself, Kuronue grabbed a bowl of fruit and some dried meat and wandered over to the wooden door that sealed the den off from the springs.

**(space)**

As he floated in the water an hour later with his eyes closed and relaxing, hair drifting loose in the water, Kuronue's pricked ears picked up the sounds of his companion awakening and panicking at finding him missing. He flecked his wings just enough to make a splash and resettled as he heard the fox still before moving towards the springs.

The door slid open and Youko breathed a sigh of relief. "You're awake."

"Yes." Kuronue agreed, not moving, but his voice a little deep and husky from disuse. The bat briefly pondered the slight hitch in the fox's breath. "You looked tired so I left you to sleep."

"Ah…Are you hungry?"

Kuronue smiled slightly. How sweet of him to worry. "I've eaten." He assured his partner. "How long have I been sleeping?"

"Two weeks, give or take a few days." Youko padded forward and settled on the edge of the pool, being careful to stay dry like a fastidious cat.

"Explains my eyes, I guess."

"You're eyes…? What's wrong?" Youko shifted in what Kuronue identified as alarm.

The bat finally moved enough to raise a hand and wave away the fox's worry. "It's nothing you should worry about. My body just went too deep into a healing sleep. I nearly went into hibernation, that's all. My eyes are just a little light sensitive and achy."

The two were silent for a while before Kuronue shifted slightly. "Can you pass the soap and wash cloth? They're by your tail. About a foot to the left."

"…How'd you know that?" There was curiosity in the fox's voice tone as he passed the requested items.

Kuronue smirked a little smugly as he took them. "I'm a bat chimera. Bats use echo-location to navigate at night. I usually block out most background sounds, but if I tried, I could probably hear a conversation three miles away on a clear, still night. It also allows me to know exactly where I am in heavy fog or a pitch black room. The slightest sound echoes off any object and rebounds with a sonic picture that hits my ears and translates into my brain. Some aquatic mammals use it to hunt and stun prey." Kuronue grinned cheerfully as he began to wash. "I get the most interesting pictures when flying over bath houses and brothels."

Youko snorted. "I wondered how you always knew where most traps and hidden guards were. I thought it was just good eyesight."

Kuronue threw his head back and laughed. The laugh ended in a choked gasp as he clutched his ribs.

There was a splash of water when Youko leapt in to stop his partner from going under. "You should be more careful-" The fox stopped mid-sentence as one of his hands slid under the bat's thighs for better support in the chest-high water.

"Kuronue?"

The bat cracked open a violet eye at the oddly strained tone the fox used.

"Yes, Youko?" The tone was mild but a sense of amusement still carried through.

"You're not wearing a towel, are you?"

Kuronue smiled, his eye sliding closed once he caught sight of the blush on his friend's face. "No, Youko."

"Why aren't you wearing a towel?"

The bat shrugged against the frozen fox. "Don't need one."

The fox growled lowly. "What are you playing at, bat?" Youko demanded, angry and upset, pushing the slightly taller male away.

Kuronue set his feet back onto the floor of the pool and turned his full body to align with Youko's, his eyes opened to heavy-lidded slits and his long wet hair hung down into the water and over his loosely-folded wings like black waterweed.

Sensing something amiss, Youko began to back up and Kuronue followed, cornering the fox against the side of the pool and holding him there with his full bodyweight. His hands reached out and pinned the fox's wrists against the edge.

Youko had enough time to see the glowing red pupils in the usually dark eyes before the instinct driven Kuronue darted forward and buried his fangs deep into the fox's shoulder where it met his neck, jaws clamping tightly. A low, possessive growl trickled from the darker youkai, raising the hairs on the back of Youko's neck and sent a shiver of anticipation down to the tip of his tail.

**_(LEMON!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)_**

Youko had a moment to wonder where the pain was before a rush of power spread from the wound, causing his head to fall back in a silent scream and his back to arch in a hair-raising, bone-tingling, toe-curling, universe-exploding burst of pleasure the likes of which he had never felt.

When the world stopped blinking in and out in flashes of red and green, he then became aware that he was mostly naked from the waist up; he was on his back two feet from the pool with his legs wrapped around Kuronue's waist and he was happily engaging in a tongue war with said bat. Almost a full second later, feeling and control returned to his body and--

--OH MY FUCKING GODDESS!!

Meanwhile, Kuronue finally managed to convince his inner incubus that he wasn't going to run away like last time and was granted control of the mouth, which he promptly used to suck on the fox's rough, cat-like tongue and run his own tongue along the sensitive roof and gums of his partner's mouth.

Once the inner incubus was satisfied that Kuronue was sufficiently focused on fucking the desirable demon beneath him, it returned the feeling in his body. At the sudden influx of feeling all over his body, Kuronue pulled back and let out a hiss.

Whilst the inner incubus had been in control of the body, it had initially bitten the fox so it could activate a sexual ability that injected a series of power pulses into the body of the subject as soon as the skin was pierced. The pulses stimulated nerve endings in such a way that in caused instant orgasms. When applied, it continued in wave upon wave of orgasms until the fangs were withdrawn; People had been known to have become so lost in the pleasure that they lost track of time and died from either blood loss or exhaustion. This was mostly because the owner of the ability also received a rather substantial cycle of pleasure only minutely less than the 'victim's' and also got lost in the feeling.

During his thrashing pleasure rush, Youko had wrapped his legs around Kuronue's waist and clawed up his arms, allowing the incubus to lift the catatonic fox from the water and onto the edge of the pool. The wrap around the fox's waist had been promptly removed and the top half of his clothing had fallen loose around the ivory torso.

Some kitsune had their own version of an inner incubus/succubus. Really, it was only sheer dumb luck that Youko was one of these kitsune; even worse, they were very compatible with one another. As soon as two such entities meet, they will do anything in their power to keep coming together.

Kuronue nudged the fox's head up and began to graze his sharp teeth, tongue and lips over the pale, silky skin that lay over the strong muscles and sinew of his partner's neck and collarbones. Lightly, oh so lightly, the bat began to drag his unsheathed claws down his lover's ribs and up again to trace around the hard pectoral muscles.

His hips shifted slightly and began a slow sideways grind against the hard erection below him, assisted by the friction of the pale cotton pants that made up the lower half of the fox's ivory outfit.

Kuronue had a moment's pause when the fox began thrashing and moaning beneath him- _damned if that wasn't the hottest thing_- before Youko's claws started to shred his upper arms and shoulders again. Kuronue's inner masochist rose and he idly shifted his wings out of the fox's reach while increasing the pressure on his lover's erection.

Using both hands, the bat grabbed the fox's wrists and pinned them above those cute pointed ears he wanted to pet so badly. Shifting his weight again, Kuronue pressed his body firmly against Youko's and adapted his grip so only one hand was needed to keep the claws away from his shoulders.

Satisfied that Youko couldn't get his wrists free without serious effort, Kuronue lifted his free hand to grab the fox's jaw and almost laughed when he was snarled at.

To Kuronue's never ending surprise at the fox, there was a sharp yank and twist and the fox's hands were free. Distracted, he glanced up too late as the strong hands dug into his hips a little painfully.

The darker youkai smirked and firmly pressed his lips against Youko's, demanding he yield to his advances. If Youko had had any thoughts of resistance, they would have manifested far earlier than that point.

Driven by the acceptance of the lips, Kuronue drove his hips forward, sending a clear signal to the body beneath him that he had every intention of fucking Youko Kurama senseless.

Finally acting on a higher brain function, the silver-haired youkai's mouth left Kuronue's to chase up velvet skin, teeth scraping a strong jaw. He bit lightly at an earlobe and trailed his lips up the steep path to the tip, nipping, and back down the neck that arched back gracefully to allow him better access.

Kuronue, for his part, abruptly pushed his lower body roughly against the other's, groaning lowly at the active reciprocation.

Belatedly, he realized that his mind had been wandering and his wayward hands had found their way down the back of Youko's pants to fiddle with the sensitive base of Youko's tail. He felt now would be a good time to pay closer attention to the matter at hand.

Kuronue wedged his knee between Youko's own, growling possessively, hands pulling Youko's hips closer to his own.

He blinked, a little taken back, when Youko suddenly growled back. There was a moment of vertigo and he only became aware that the fox had flipped their positions when he landed on his back and pins and needles shot through his awkwardly positioned wings.

Hands positioned identically on one another's hips and their legs tangled, Youko growled again and thrust against the panting demon on the bottom. He was pleasantly surprised when Kuronue arched upwards, his lean body pressing hard against the one above him.

Shifting his hands up to Youko's lower back, the bat used his leverage to hook his ankle around the fox's leg and rolling them over yet again so he was back on top. Growling playfully, his head darted down and locked on the bite mark, sending another bolt of pleasure through the fox before he could retaliate.

Competition made things so much more interesting.

Recovering quickly, a pale hand buried itself in the drying black mass and jerked Kuronue's head back, allowing the fox to attach himself to his partner's neck, sucking hard with mouth and teeth, leaving a big red hickey.

Abruptly deciding that Youko was too covered up this late in the game, wandering hands grabbed the back of the shirt and ripped.

Youko relinquished his hold on the bat's throat to growl up at him. A teasing smirk graced bruised lips and hands deftly tossed the tattered rags over his shoulder. Holding the fox down so he couldn't react fast enough, Kuronue reached down and shredded the damp cotton pants.

A sudden growl and Youko surged forward, pushing the bat backwards and back onto his back.

Surprising them both, Kuronue threw his head back and laughed joyously, before flipping them over yet again, closer to the once-occupied pool, and grabbing the small bottle of hair conditioner.

Satisfied he had the right bottle, Kuronue scrambled to his feet and reached down a hand to help the startled fox up. There was a moment of hesitation and worry in the fox's eyes before Kuronue hauled the other youkai to his feet, pulled him hard against his body and nipped the fox's neck.

Youko was about to react again, he really was, but just as abruptly as the beginning, he found himself pressed against stone, this time a pillar, and held up by his thighs in a strong grip. There was another nip at his shoulder and something slippery slipped into the hole a few inches beneath his tail.

Hooking his legs around the bat's waist, Youko went in and began another tongue war just as a second finger slipped in and began scissoring.

Youko hadn't really had a chance to look before, being – ahem - otherwise occupied, but the pressure against his inner thigh felt rather large.

He winced slightly as a third went in.

Definitely large.

The fingers disappeared and the fox felt himself lifted higher as Kuronue broke the kiss and dropped his head down slightly.

Fangs slid into their grooves in the neck-bite and a third spasm of pleasure rang through his body like a gong. A few second later, he blinked at the bright lights flickering in his eyes to find that his head was back and he was staring at the cave ceiling.

Kuronue lapped at the blood on the wound but was otherwise motionless, having buried himself to the hilt while Youko shuddered and gasped.

There was a moment where the fox stopped breathing for a few seconds before gasping again and contracting heavily on the solid length seated within him.

Taking this as encouragement to continue, the bat did something with his legs and hips that made it feel like he was rolling in the tight, dark channel, causing Youko to wrap his arms around the darker youkai's neck and hold on tightly, gasping at every little movement. It was a dance-like movement that started with Kuronue's shoulders and ended with his hips and made it feel like a separate, living creature writhing and twisting as it tried to escape from inside the fox's ivory body.

Despite his experience with all manners of sex, this was not something Youko had ever come across before. He had thought sex with Kuronue would be entertaining and possibly violent, but this went beyond any expectations of any previous lovers. Every time he thought he had found a rhythm with the bat, his hips twisted to another beat and Youko had to try and match the beat as well as he could. It felt like a dance he was suddenly dragged into but didn't know what steps he was supposed to take; and whenever he felt he was beginning to memorise the moves, the tempo would pick up or slow down just enough to throw him.

It didn't really help either when his concentration was blown to hell as the length abruptly hit his prostate. After that, he began to slide away into a whirling dance of pleasure that shot his sense of time to pieces.

It felt like eternities later when Youko finally let go; seed splashing up sweaty chests and shuddering like he'd been electrocuted, still clutching the other to him. The fox slumped in Kuronue's arms as the bat continued to writhe in him for some time longer before following, thick liquid gushing out the fox's lower orifice and down both their legs.

Breathing heavily for a moment, Kuronue wondered admiringly at how long Youko had held out. The bat had had lovers who had released as many as seven times before he had found his own release.

**(End lemon)**

He shift the drowsing fox off him and stood from where he had fallen to a kneeling position, the pale one cradled gently in his arms, already asleep. Smiling affectionately, Kuronue drifted carefully into the water to cleanse them both of the various body fluids.

Once satisfied that they were clean, he gently dried the slumbering creature and laid him on the fox's own sleeping pallet. Gathering the blankets up, Kuronue curled in next to his fox and went to sleep, wound fully healed.

**(space)**

Kuronue woke with his usual stock take and found that his sexual repression was at an unprecedented low 12 percent while Existential Dread and Randomized Guilt were at 54 percent and 63 percent respectively. He was also surprisingly warm…and naked.

Hanging in the comfortable realm of being still asleep but conscious, his nose told him that he was in someone else's bed, that that someone was a male fox familiar to him and resting practically on top of him, smelling vaguely of past sex and current arousal. His sense of touch said his legs were entwined with another pair of legs and a fluffy tail, the front of his body was pressed against the side of another body, his right arm was lying between his chest and the other's whilst the left was thrown over a chest. His head was resting on a shoulder.

The pictures coming back to his ears were various subtle body functions from his right ear (where it was pressed into the shoulder he was laying on) and a picture of the room from his left. He was curled up in Youko's bed with Youko's blankets and using Youko as a giant soft toy slash pillow. The fox in question was watching Kuronue sleep, looking not a little shell-shock and aroused, red dusting his cheeks.

And it felt like something was growing next to his thigh.

Now fully awake, Kuronue sighed and shifted as if beginning to wake.

Youko's reaction to this was to snap his eyes closed and feign sleep.

That wouldn't do.

He flexed his wings a little and nuzzled into the shoulder, but other than that, appeared to go back to sleep.

After a few minutes of nothing happening, Kuronue really _did_ go back to sleep.

As humans said, _Que sera sera. _

**Space)**

Hnnn…?

Oh…that was niiizzze…

Kuronue undulated his back like a cat, pressing against the hand petting him and alternating between purring and trilling, reaching a fevered pitch whenever that lovely hand rubbed between his wings.

His legs tightened and pulled the almost feverishly warm body closer, unaware of getting harder.

There was a rumble of laughter beneath him and the body shifted onto its side.

A hand traced the curl of the half-asleep bat's jaw to his chin and pulled it up.

"Kuronue? Yo, Kuronue! Wake up!"

"Mmphf!" Kuronue jerked his head away and nuzzled back into the shoulder.

"Kuronue!" The voice snapped, impatient, and shoved him back.

Jerking awake, the bat in question snarled and took a swipe at what had woken him so violently.

Youko hissed and jerked back against the wall, five long, thin scratches marring his chest, lending a splash of bright red colour to the pale canvas.

Kuronue glared and hissed out, "Don't ever try to wake me like that again. If I weren't already half-awake, there's a good chance I'd have torn you to pieces!"

Youko snarled back. "Well, if you'd woken up in the first place, I wouldn't have had to!"

Kuronue's fangs grew a little in a fight-or-flight response. "Well, what the hell DID YOU WAKE ME _UP_ FOR!!"

Youko opened his mouth to answer, paused, snapped it shut again, blushed and suddenly found the ceiling very interesting.

Kuronue's irritation quickly faded into curiosity, then understanding when he caught sight of Youko's not-so-little friend and the vibrant purplish-green bite mark on the crux of shoulder and neck Youko probably couldn't even feel through all the numbing agents in Kuronue's saliva.

The chimera youkai settled into an almost-kneeling, mostly sitting position and stared at the bite-mark, looking completely baffled and, with his long hair falling in sleep-tossled waves around his face, upper body and wings, utterly fuckable.

Youko risked a glance at the bat before quickly refocusing on the ceiling, cursing that quick look as his 'friend' gave a standing ovation at the way those kiss-bruised lips were pouting in thought, giving Kuronue an 'I'm-helpless-Fuck-me' appearance.

Kuronue, however, was more baffled by the bite mark and what it meant. The only person he had ever given this mark to had been Madara. A requirement of the mark was that the marker had to truly love the markee for the mark to take hold like this one had so obviously done. The bat knew that he cared for his partner (he never would have put up with Youko's 'quirks' if he hadn't), but he hadn't thought he had truly been _in love with him!_

His inner incubus shifted and gave the impression of being infinitely smug.

Damned subconscious entity. He should have known something was up when it had woken from its dormancy after two thousand years. Why his subconscious enjoyed kicking him in the balls every so often was beyond him.

Youko was so going to throw a fit when he found out he'd be physically uninterested in anyone unless Kuronue Okayed it or he found his 'one true love'. Given Kuronue's possessive and jealous nature, coupled with the fact that Youko was probably physically incapable of such depth of emotion, neither option was really available.

Kuronue would be able to use the mark to instil an almost irresistible desire for the bat in the fox, causing Youko to crave his touch beyond anything else, even food, drink or physical safety. And the mark would only fade when one of them was dead or Kuronue actively dispelled it. Aside from that, the mark was soul-deep and unbreakable by practical means.

"Ah, Kuronue?"

Said youkai blinked back into the present at the breathy, almost moan beside his ear. He had, whilst deep in thought, crawled forward and was running his fingers around the wound, face close as he inspected it and resting most of his weight on his other hand…which was positioned between Youko's legs and rubbing against his member.

Deciding that he couldn't deal with this right now, Kuronue lowered his mouth to the wound and sucked hard.

Youko's body spasmed violently against the wall, all thoughts of questions promptly driven from his mind.

**(space)**

Youko had taken the news of the mark pretty well: though Kuronue _had_ left out the whole 'I-have-to-love-you-for-it-to-take' part.

And three days of near constant sex had probably gone towards mellowing him out too.

Unfortunately, as much as he hated to admit it, he needed advice. He was two thousand seven hundred years old and he really had only two relationships under his belt before Youko, and they had been a teenage romance with Madara and a teacher-student-lover relationship with the miko who had taught him how to control his sight abilities and was now very much dead and dust.

He couldn't for the life of him remember what her name was.

Oh well.

He wracked his brain for any option, but all he could come up with was Kurai.

Whom he hadn't communicated with in nearly two thousand years except for the occasional letter every hundred years or so

So he put Youko under a sleep spell for three days and took off to visit his loving sister.

**(space)**

"-NOT EVEN HAD THE DECENCY TO COME AND SPEAK ME TO MY FACE-!"

Kuronue ducked a well-aimed vase thrown by his loving big sister, Kurai, and wondered if it wouldn't have been prudent to let her know he was coming first.

He'd forgotten her temper, and her protective steak when it came to him was wide enough to fit entire planets though.

…and he'd only left her a letter explaining why he was leaving rather that face maternal instincts.

"But I came to see you now." He put forward meekly, hiding behind an overturned table.

"Yes. You have." Kuronue cringed at the deceptively sweet voice of his sister. "And why is that, my darling little brother?"

Bother siblings ignored the sounds of shock and dismay coming from the bat chimeras undoubtedly listening at every possible crack to find out what had their usually unflappable, ruthless and war-like Ruling Lady of the Northern Bat Chimera Clans screaming like a scorned fishwife.

"I need advice…about relationships…"

"Really?!" Kurai squealed from directly behind him, making a 180 from fishwife to fangirl faster than the eye could see. "You need sissy's advice?!"

Kuronue nodded wordlessly, freaked out; though not nearly as freaked out as her underlings.

She stood abruptly, pulling him up with her, and dragged him towards the door. "Let's go somewhere more private."

Both siblings heard the scrambling of feet and wings moments before the door was opened.

**(space)**

Aside from her usual raunchy and war-loving self, Kurai proved to be a good listener, barely commenting during his long tale of his life since he left.

In return, she also proved to be a brilliant planner (which had driven him up the wall as a child when he found out she had his whole life planned (hence the 'running away' bit)) and owned a rather large library of scrolls, manuscripts and books. By the end of the second day, the two had a workable plan in regards to the vision Kuronue had had before the whole nearly-dying fiasco (Kurai had gone berko when he mentioned it in passing), had worked out the hows and whys of it, ironed out the kinks and come up with a means by which to communicate the success or failure of the plan.

Oh.

And she'd been totally useless when it came to advice on relationships as she herself had the same promiscuous reputation as Youko once did.

He'd been very surprised to find she'd actually had a child though; a boy called Kunai. This was odd because she'd always been most adamant that children were 'loud, useless parasites who should at least have the decency to come into existence fully-grown'.

She passed it off with, "It was either produce an heir or step down. To veto the chance of having a life-mate, I fucked so many men that determining the father would be virtually impossible." Snicker. "I thwarted so many schemes that month."

Kunai seemed an alright sort, though he'd taken after his grandmother, Kiko, in personality. He was quiet and kept to himself mostly, but Kuronue'd head he had a vicious temper when provoke and his battle pro-ess was nothing to laugh about.

The only real problem he ran into was Kurai's demands to meet Youko, which he managed to dissuade her of when he pointed out that he didn't particularly feel like letting his lover know he was effectively a prince.

And so he left after many 'I love yous' and 'I'll miss yous' and 'I'll hunt you down and kill you if you don't come see me at least once a decade's from his sister and ignoring the many prayers from the batty denizens for the 'vicious warbitch' to come back once he was gone.

Apparently, 'Fangirl/Big Sissy Kurai' was freaking everyone out with her bubbling cheerfulness.

By the time Youko woke on the evening of the third day, Kuronue was back and he had no reason to suspect his lover had even been gone.

**(space)**

Centuries blurred into a muddle of sex, thieving, sex, killing, sex, snuggling in during the early mornings and the occasional visit to Kurai (who mostly wanted all the gory details of her brother's sex life) for Kuronue and he could honestly say he hadn't been so consistently happy since before his tiff with Taisho.

Love was never brought up; youkai like them seldom fell in love.

It started late one night after a heist: both Kuronue and Youko had been ready to drop and so had retreated to their own futons for the night to fall into an exhausted sleep.

Kuronue wasn't sure what he had been dreaming about before he woke, but when he did he was crying and overcome with a sense of forebodance, the pendant humming against his chest in warning.

Quite distressed, the dark-haired male clambered into Youko's bed, clutching the surprised and barely awake fox tightly, ignoring his enquiries as to what was wrong.

Youko never found out what was wrong, but Kuronue remained depressed for days afterwards, causing the fox to become attentive and sensitive to the bat's needs. Even when Kuronue appeared to get over it, Youko remained vigilant until he was sure his partner and secret love truly recovered.

Kuronue died three weeks later.

**(space)**

(Thirteen and a Half Years Later…)

…It hurt…

It really hurt that Youko had cared enough to make a shrine to him after his death. It showed that he had grieved deeply for his lover.

Kuronue curled into a tighter ball on the mist-shrouded grass of Crane's mindscape, tears lacing his tightly-shut eyelids.

But what hurt the most was that he had never told Youko…

…He never told Youko that he loved him…

* * *

-Sniffles- Poor Kuro... 

Anyway...Pleez review.


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